William Mahone

William Mahone (1 December 1826-8 October 1895) was a Confederate States Army Major-General during the American Civil War and a US Senator from Virginia (R) from 4 March 1881 to 4 March 1887 (succeeding Robert E. Withers and preceding John W. Daniel).

Biography
William Mahone was born in Brown's Ferry, Southampton County, Virginia in 1826, and he worked as a road and railroad builder as a young man, eventually becoming chief engineer of the Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad and building log foundations under the routes in the Great Dismal Swamp. When the American Civil War broke out, the secessionist Mahone became colonel of the 6th Virginia Infantry of the Confederate States Army, and he became a Brigadier-General on 16 November 1861. During the Peninsula Campaign of 1862, he helped to fortify Richmond, and he led a brigade during the Seven Days Battles. Mahone was shot in the chest while leading a charge at the Second Battle of Bull Run, and he missed out on the Battle of Antietam as a result. He saw little action at the Battle of Fredericksburg and the Battle of Gettysburg, but he was given divisional command after his soldiers accidentally wounded James Longstreet at the Battle of the Wilderness, leading to division command Richard H. Anderson taking over Longstreet's corps. On 30 July 1864, he distinguished himself at the Battle of the Crater, where he led a counterattack which turned a promising battle for the Union into Ambrose Burnside's last defeat. On 9 April 1865, however, he was forced to surrender alongside General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Court House.

After the war, Mahone returned to railroad building, forming the Atlantic, Mississippi, and Ohio Railroad in Lynchburg. He also founded the populist Readjuster Party, a coalition of African-American freedmen, Republicans, and populist Democrats. He served as a US Senator from 1881 to 1887, and he caucused with the Republicans, costing him support from the white electorate, as did his tolerant treatment of freedmen. he died in Washington DC in 1895 at the age of 68.